Ritmennt - 01.01.1997, Page 166

ABSTRACTS
RITMENNT
In this article, which was written in connection
with the exhibition, an attempt is made to assess
the contribution made by Morris to the art of
book-making.
Gunnar Sveinsson: Bréf Öku-Þórs. Ritmennt 2
(1997), pp. 119-26.
A pseudonymous letter signed by Öku-Þórr is
printed on pp. 119-20. It is argued that the letter
was written by the Rev. Matthías fochumsson,
the poet, to Mr Skafti Jósefsson, editor of the
newspaper Austrí.
Afhending handrita Halldórs Laxness á degi ís-
lenskrar tungu, 16. nóvember 1996. Einar Sig-
urðsson tók saman. Ritmennt 2 (1997), pp.
127-40.
The Day of the Icelandic Language, 16
November, which is also the hirthday of Jónas
Hallgrímsson, the poet, was celebrated for the
first time in 1996. The family of Halldór Lax-
ness, the Nobel laureate, decided to use the
occasion to dcposit formally his manuscripts
and letters in the National and University
Library of Iceland. At a gathering in the Library,
the programme included, among other things,
addresses given by the National Librarian and
the Head of the Department of Manuscripts, as
well as one by Mrs Auður Sveinsdóttir, the wife
of Halldór Laxness, all of which are printed here,
the reading of selections from an unpublished
letter written in 1919 by Halldór Laxness, then
17 years old, in Copenhagen to his mother, also
printed here, and the opening of an exhibition of
manuscripts and other material relating to Hall-
dór Laxness.
Sópuður. Ritmennt 2 (1997), pp. 141-57.
A miscellany containing brief accounts by Mr
Einar Sigurðsson of four recent Austrian
donations to the National and University
Library of Iceland (pp. 141-45); a presentation by
Mr Steingrímur Jónsson of SHARP, Society for
the History of Authorship, Reading and Pub-
lishing (pp. 146-48); a description by Mr Jökull
Sævarsson of a project, now completed, giving
Internet access to about 220 pre-1900 maps of
Iceland owned by the National and University
Library of Iceland (pp. 148-51); a review Iry Mr
Steingrímur Jónsson of a new boolc in Swedish
on the history of tlie book in Estonia published
by Helsinki University Library (pp. 152-54); and
an account by Mr Einar Sigurðsson of a new
facsimile edition of Hallgrímur Pétursson's only
surviving autograph of the Hymns of the Passion
(Passíusálmai) published by the National and
University Library of Iceland (pp. 154-57).
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